When a company's flagship product falters, you don't expect the president to slash his salary in half, but that's exactly what Nintendo's Satoru Iwata did last week, after revealing the drastic 3DS price cut.

Nintendo has not been happy with 3DS hardware sales to date, and rather than patiently waiting another few months for a holiday boost, it's injecting the platform with a signifiant price drop less than six months after launch.

Iwata's making a full court press to boost Nintendo's new handheld, even if it means ticking off early adopter customers, Nintendo's core following.

After the announcement, Iwata published a letter to Nintendo fans on the company's website. This letter hasn't been officially translated to English by Nintendo, nor has Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime passed along something similar. I had a friend translate the letter, which comes across about as heartfelt and genuine as you could expect from the head of a major corporation.

I've decided to reprint the translation in full, with the exception of where Iwata details the 3DS Ambassador program, Nintendo's mea culpa through free NES and Game Boy Advance games, which you can read more about here.

To Those Customers Who Bought A Nintendo 3DS Before The Price Change

Greetings, everyone. This is Satoru Iwata from Nintendo.

Thank you very much for purchasing a Nintendo 3DS.

We have just announced a price drop for the Nintendo 3DS system effective on August 11 [August 12 in North America].

In the past, there have been price drops for video game systems some time after their release in order to broaden the user base further. However, never before has Nintendo chosen to issue such a dramatic price drop less than 6 months after a system release.

We are all too keenly aware that those of you who supported us by purchasing the 3DS in the beginning may feel betrayed and criticize this decision.

This unprecedented timing for a price cut is because the situation has changed greatly since we originally launched the 3DS. We decided it was necessary to take this drastic step in order to ensure that large numbers of users will continue to enjoy the 3DS in the future.

If the software creators and those on the retail side are not confident that the Nintendo 3DS is a worthy successor to the DS and will achieve a similarly broad (user) base, it will be impossible for the 3DS to gain popularity, acquire a wide range of software, and eventually create the product cycle necessary for everyone to be satisfied with the system.

Those customers who purchased the 3DS at the very beginning are extremely important to us. We know that there is nothing we can do to completely make up for the feeling that you are being punished for buying the system early. Still, we would like to offer the following as a sign of our appreciation to you.

[3DS Ambassador program details]

We feel a strong responsibility to develop the 3DS as a platform -- to ensure that, in the end, everyone is satisfied; we will make every effort to do so.

Additionally, we know everyone is waiting for Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7. They are scheduled for release in November and December, respectively, so we ask for your patience until then.

Thank you again, and we look forward to your continued support.

The retail price for 3DS will drop from $249.99 to $169.99 on August 12.

In order to participate in the 3DS Ambassador program, log into the eShop before midnight on August 11.

When a company's flagship product falters, you don't expect the president to slash his salary in half, but that's exactly what Nintendo's Satoru Iwata did last week, after revealing the drastic 3DS price cut.

Nintendo has not been happy with 3DS hardware sales to date, and rather than patiently waiting another few months for a holiday boost, it's injecting the platform with a signifiant price drop less than six months after launch.

Iwata's making a full court press to boost Nintendo's new handheld, even if it means ticking off early adopter customers, Nintendo's core following.

After the announcement, Iwata published a letter to Nintendo fans on the company's website. This letter hasn't been officially translated to English by Nintendo, nor has Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime passed along something similar. I had a friend translate the letter, which comes across about as heartfelt and genuine as you could expect from the head of a major corporation.

I've decided to reprint the translation in full, with the exception of where Iwata details the 3DS Ambassador program, Nintendo's mea culpa through free NES and Game Boy Advance games, which you can read more about here.

To Those Customers Who Bought A Nintendo 3DS Before The Price Change

Greetings, everyone. This is Satoru Iwata from Nintendo.

Thank you very much for purchasing a Nintendo 3DS.

We have just announced a price drop for the Nintendo 3DS system effective on August 11 [August 12 in North America].

In the past, there have been price drops for video game systems some time after their release in order to broaden the user base further. However, never before has Nintendo chosen to issue such a dramatic price drop less than 6 months after a system release.

We are all too keenly aware that those of you who supported us by purchasing the 3DS in the beginning may feel betrayed and criticize this decision.

This unprecedented timing for a price cut is because the situation has changed greatly since we originally launched the 3DS. We decided it was necessary to take this drastic step in order to ensure that large numbers of users will continue to enjoy the 3DS in the future.

If the software creators and those on the retail side are not confident that the Nintendo 3DS is a worthy successor to the DS and will achieve a similarly broad (user) base, it will be impossible for the 3DS to gain popularity, acquire a wide range of software, and eventually create the product cycle necessary for everyone to be satisfied with the system.

Those customers who purchased the 3DS at the very beginning are extremely important to us. We know that there is nothing we can do to completely make up for the feeling that you are being punished for buying the system early. Still, we would like to offer the following as a sign of our appreciation to you.

[3DS Ambassador program details]

We feel a strong responsibility to develop the 3DS as a platform -- to ensure that, in the end, everyone is satisfied; we will make every effort to do so.

Additionally, we know everyone is waiting for Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7. They are scheduled for release in November and December, respectively, so we ask for your patience until then.

Thank you again, and we look forward to your continued support.

The retail price for 3DS will drop from $249.99 to $169.99 on August 12.

In order to participate in the 3DS Ambassador program, log into the eShop before midnight on August 11.

The price drop really isn't fixing the problem though. There is still going to be a pretty massive hole until november with only StarFox643D (ugh) to hold us over. They are really not convincing me that I need this hardware. I don't even think they've convinced themselves internally that they need this hardware.

Very interested to see if the price drop has the effect Nintendo is hoping for. Seeing that there are almost zero "must-have" 3DS titles right now, it might take more than a pricedrop for people to want to own one.

I think I've just fallen out of interest with handheld games. When I was a kid, I had all the time in the world to play on one (especially during car rides), but these days, I barely have time to play console/pc games. It's a shame. I remember the hours I lost to Pokemon and later Golden Sun and lots of other great games.

So, in another translation "Hey guys, we dun goofed with our launch library, so we dropped the price on the 3DS, and here is some free stuff you can get if you bought the 3DS early at a later time, along with the other good 3DS games you can have at a later time, so enjoy :D".

Since it's release I've basically just waiting for a good excuse to buy one. The GBA and DS are both amazing systems! Yeah, it's slow to start, but I'm still optimistic. Honestly, the Ambassador program is almost convincing... Those are great games.

So I've read both of these articles and connected to the eShop on my 3DS, but I don't see any information at all confirming that I will get my games or when they will be released. Anyone got more information?

Edit: Well I looked over the Nintendo article and seems the NES games will be coming in September and the GBA games by the end of the year. Little bit longer wait than I was hoping for. I really wish I would have waited for the price drop.

Nintendo are slowly realising that the handheld game market has slipped away from them. The death of the 3DS may be greatly exaggerated, but this seems like a company on damage limitation mode. With the Wii cash cow running dry, and Wii U eating through their reserves as they try valiantly / desperately to get third parties on board, they need more than Mario to save them.

Classy letter, and you can tell it wasn't written by a secretary, but by the man himself.

That said, legacy titles are not enough to make the system worthwhile. There needs to be new, good software that makes people excited to get the unit. Nintendo's nostalgia cash-in titles may appease the fanboys, but they need more for the rest of us.

@Mesoian a lot of companies were canceling games probably due to poor 3ds sales. If they lower the price it will sell better, sells better will make it more attractive to developers. This leads to more games meaning it becomes an awesome system.

I do love me some Nintendo-games, so I can get behind this. Still feels pretty bad, but hey, I had some fun with it and I think I will with these games they're giving us, just read the list and the ones announced are bangers!

I'm just glad for the apology and explanation. Yes, I understand why they did it, I knew why they did it when they did. But the fact that they bother with explaining it says a lot, and other companies (*cough* Capcom) could learn a lesson here.

I hate how people throw a fit when there is a price drop after they buy something. Tough luck. Were you not aware that technology seems to decrease in value as time passes? Were you not aware that early adopters normally always bear the highest cost of entry?

I paid $250 dollars for my 3DS. I walked into a store, gave them that amount of money, and was given the 3DS. The transaction was completed, and I was entirely aware of exactly what I was paying for it (and the fact that it would probably be cheaper in the future). I am happy Nintendo is going to give us "ambassadors" 20 free games, but I wouldn't have thrown a fit if they had done nothing at all.

I honestly don't feel betrayed by this. Granted, I didn't have to pay full price for a 3DS due to trade-in deals, but regardless, considering how much I actually use my 3DS (which is actually alot, surprisingly), I feel I've gotten a worthwhile piece of tech with an unfortunately uncertain future.

I'm not big on Nintendo as a company, and I question alot of their decisions and their generally smug attitude. It's pretty annoying actually. But they're a company I'm glad exists in contrary to everyone else, doing what other people can't. I hope this turns around for them...

Am I the only one who still doesn't think this is enough? This didn't seem genuine or heartfelt at all, it seemed pretty boiler-plate to me. They fucked up, they should have been giving people something more than a bunch of games most of us have played on 30 different platforms a million times. PSN users lost online capability for a couple months, and got significant, recent, good games for that. 3DS Early adopters get pretty royally screwed by paying for something that never gets any software worth picking up and then they drop the price before most people even get any use out of them and they get 20 games from 20 years ago? Sony get's shit for their games already having been played, but Nintendo doesn't? On top of that, I'm pretty sure the time window for doing the Sony stuff was a good bit more than 2 weeks that they are giving for this Nintendo thing. Plus those games were available right then and there. Not in later months, like I'm hearing this Nintendo stuff will be.

It would be cool if being a 3DS Ambassador allowed you to gift one of your 20 free games to a friend or use them in a different way to entice someone to jump on a 3DS. I think of more of a "referral"-type service when I hear the word "Ambassador" myself.

Also, I don't know if others have pointed this out yet, but I'm fairly sure that "apologic" isn't a word (maybe the word Patrick was looking for was "apologetic"?).

Am I the only one who still doesn't think this is enough? This didn't seem genuine or heartfelt at all, it seemed pretty boiler-plate to me. They fucked up, they should have been giving people something more than a bunch of games most of us have played on 30 different platforms a million times. PSN users lost online capability for a couple months, and got significant, recent, good games for that. 3DS Early adopters get pretty royally screwed by paying for something that never gets any software worth picking up and then they drop the price before most people even get any use out of them and they get 20 games from 20 years ago? Sony get's shit for their games already having been played, but Nintendo doesn't? On top of that, I'm pretty sure the time window for doing the Sony stuff was a good bit more than 2 weeks that they are giving for this Nintendo thing. Plus those games were available right then and there. Not in later months, like I'm hearing this Nintendo stuff will be.

Totally agreed. I sent a very long email to nintendo myself and they had replied back with ``well too bad, we can`t do anymore to help you``. Its just ignorance. If they were loyal to the consumer base, they would take the hit, and atleast wait 6 months, if not a year. Nintendo disappoints me more than ever.